Van Soest vs. Meksen is a Clash of American Muay Thai and European Kickboxing

On the GLORY 48 SuperFight Series GLORY Super Bantamweight Champion Tiffany “Timebomb” Van Soest is set to clash with international kickboxing sensation Anissa Meksen in a highly-anticipated bout. The two women have built themselves up over the years, each with reputations within their own, respective sports: Van Soest in the American muay thai community and Meksen in the European kickboxing scene. This fight is not only a styles clash, but one of culture, as well.

Tiffany van Soest has become a force of nature in America, with her muay thai fights gaining her popularity beyond the rather insular muay thai community and into the combat sports community at large. This is why she shifted her focus to GLORY kickboxing while signing a dual-contract with Invicta FC, with her MMA debut forthcoming. Her time in GLORY has been lacking in the fireworks that her muay thai career yielded, but it’s still young yet, with her GLORY record at 4-0 with one knockout.

Meksen, on the other hand, has built up a reputation as not just a great fighter, but perhaps the best in the world with 92 victories under her belt, 30 of which came via knockout. She’s not just fought everyone, she’s beaten everyone, making this clash with van Soest a logical move and perhaps an inevitability. This fight was always going to happen and it was always going to be for this title.

We know how kickboxing fans view this fight, with van Soest’s one big excursion into kickboxing in Enfusion against Denise Kielholtz in 2014 under a less-refined Enfusion ruleset than exists now didn’t turn out well for her. To her defense, the rules were also a bit different, with sweeps and throws being scored, while they aren’t in kickboxing usually. But what do professional bettors think about the fight? We asked the experts at SportsBettingDime.com for their view on it, and it seems to be split.

“Tiffany ‘Timebomb’ Van Soest (18-2-1) is reason enough for combat-sports fans to take notice of GLORY 48, where the current super bantamweight champion will defend her title against #2-ranked Anissa Meksen (92-3). Van Soest is an extremely smart and well-rounded fighter. She can switch her stance from orthodox to southpaw and not lose any power. She throws great straight punches and has arguably the most devastating left kick in women’s kickboxing.

“However, Mekson is one of the world’s most decorated fighters and is currently undefeated in GLORY. She is extremely fast, incredibly elusive, and loves to be the aggressor. In what should be a close and very technical fight, the champ is a slight 9/11 favorite, but in no way is her advantage clear-cut,” according to the kickboxing writer at SportsBettingDime.com.

Perhaps perception is everything when it comes to fights like this. Van Soest has more exposure in the United States, while Meksen is still fairly unknown outside of a subset of fans. Her outings in GLORY have been impressive, but van Soest’s have been as well. Does the level of their competition prior to this match up, was one fighting harder competition, do the differences between muay thai and kickboxing matter? All of these questions will be answered on December 1st at GLORY 48.